Next boss Lord Wolfson has warned that the government’s plans to update the UK’s employment laws risks leaving companies “chronically overstaffed”.

The chief executive said that plans to ban zero-hour contracts and introduce guaranteed number of minimum weekly hours would be a “wrecking ball” to part-time contracts.

Under the government’s proposed reforms, zero-hours contracts will be replaced by so-called low-hour contracts which Wolfson has raised concerns that the term has not yet been defined.

Wolfson, who is a Conservative peer, put forward an amendment in the House of Lords to define low hours as eight a week, The Telegraph reported.

“To push that number higher would be to take a wrecking ball to the part-time working practices of millions of people in shops, restaurants, care homes, pubs and many other consumer-facing businesses, which, by their nature, have peaks and troughs in demand,” he said during a House of Lords debate on Monday.

“If an employer successfully implements a system, they will have to offer contracts regardless of whether there is any work for those people going forward.”

Wolfson said that many shops, alongside restaurants and pubs “simply cannot afford” to have the same number of people working in February as they have in December.

“Nor can we take the risk that the extra hours required to cover many different seasonal peaks and sale events become permanent costs for the rest of the year,” he added.

Lord Wolfson stated that Next, which employs around 20,000 part-time staff, did not use zero-hours contracts but hired temporary workers during its busy end-of-season sale period.

The chief executive told the House of Lords that there is “something of a crisis” happening at entry-level employment as he reported Next was receiving 61 applicants for each vacancy, up 25% from last year.

One of its stores in Birmingham had received 1,200 applications for four jobs.

Wolfson argued that if low-hours contracts were not defined at eight hours a week then the reforms “could significantly exacerbate that problem”.

He also said that many businesses would turn to recruiting temporary staff, rather than offering low-hours contracts.

“If it is not clear who will benefit, it is very clear who will suffer,” he explained.

“It will be those who choose part-time contracts, such as parents with childcare responsibilities, students balancing their studies with earning and often taking their first step into employment, carers for elderly relatives or those seeking a transition into retirement.”

A government spokesman told the publication: “This Government is delivering the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation through our Plan for Change, and our landmark Employment Rights Bill is set to benefit more than half of all workers in the UK.

“Our focus is on giving financial security to people who don’t have it, particularly those who lack predictability, and we will continue to work closely with employers to ensure new laws work for them while putting money back into the pockets of working people.”

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